Slipping On Palm Oil

Context: New policy puts Northeast’s biodiversity, farming communities at risk.

About National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMEO-OP):

• Launched on August 15 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it entails support of Rs 11,000 crore to incentivise oil palm production. The government intends to bring an additional 6.5 lakh hectares under oil palm cultivation. 
• The Yellow Revolution of the 1990s led to a rise in oilseeds production of diverse oilseeds — groundnut, rapeseed and mustard, soybean — however, that has not matched the increasing demand. 
  • Most of these oilseeds are grown in rain-fed agriculture areas of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
• Incentive for launch: A significant incentive for the launch of the NMEO-OP to promote palm cultivation comes from the “success stories” of Indonesia and Malaysia. 
  • Indonesia has emerged as a significant palm oil hub in the last decade and has overtaken Malaysia.
  • The two countries produce 80%  of global oil palm. Indonesia exports more than 80%  of its production.
• Imparts growth and reduce import dependence: India imported 18.41 million tonnes of vegetable oil in 2018.
  • The mission will help its growth and reduce the country’s dependence on palm oil imports, especially from Indonesia and Malaysia. 

Challenges with the NMEO-OP

• Environmental concerns: Especially in the Northeast and Andaman Islands. Studies on agrarian change in Southeast Asia have shown that increasing oil palm plantations has led to declining biodiversity. 
  • Indonesia has seen a loss of 1,15,495 million hectares of forest cover in 2020, mainly to oil palm plantations. From 2002-18, Indonesia lost 91,54,000 million hectares of its primary forest cover. 
  • Along with adversely impacting the country’s biodiversity, it has led to increasing water pollution.
  • The decreasing forest cover has significant implications with respect to increasing carbon emission levels and contributing to climate change.
• Socio-political concerns: Palm oil plantations have stoked conflict between government policies and customary land rights and ignores ground realities.
  • Legislation allowing the clearing of tree cover and cutting forests for growing palm trees has led to increasing land-related tussles between government officials, locals and agro-business groups in Malaysia and Indonesia
  • Such initiatives are also against the notion of community self-reliance: The initial state support for such a crop results in a major and quick shift in the existing cropping pattern that is not always in sync with the agro-ecological conditions and food requirements of the region.
  • For e.g., people in the Northeast do not use the oil for cooking or any other purpose. The oil is being used by industries for packaged food and medicines, detergents and cosmetics,

• Contradicts the government’s commitments under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture: “Making agriculture more productive, sustainable, remunerative and climate-resilient by promoting location specific integrated/composite farming systems.” 
  • The palm oil mission, instead, aims at achieving complete transformation of the farming system of Northeast India.
  • While studies show the Palm oil cultivation has led to an increase in the income of people in Indonesia, they remain vulnerable to the global price shocks and thus remain dependent on government incentives – making agriculture not self-sustaining.

Conclusion: The increasing focus on palm oil will gradually result in focus shifting away from rainfed oilseeds. Apart from the possible hazardous impacts in Northeast India, such trends could have negative implications on farmer incomes, health, and food security in other parts of the country in the long run.